Of Stories and Time Travel
by PurpleRose15
Summary: A novelization of the events featured in The Days are Just Packed, where Calvin goes on an epic time travel adventure in order to avoid doing his homework. Will he be successful in retrieving his creative story before bedtime? Please note: I don't own all of the dialogue or plot ideas; this is a continuation of an existing storyline. Enjoy!
1. The Assignment

Calvin walked off the school bus and stormed into the house. He didn't even notice that Hobbes wasn't waiting to greet him when he slammed the door open. Probably reading Captain Napalm books and drawing mustaches on the superheroes or something, who cared? Instead, he was focused on getting to his room so he could complete the awful, torturous homework assignment that awaited him. Normally, Calvin was all for procrastination, but _creative_ assignments were just…ugh! Math could wait, but this one had to be done, and as quickly as possible.

"Hey, buddy! How was school today?" his tiger buddy asked from the bed. He was indeed scribbling on an old Captain Napalm issue, but at the moment Calvin was too upset to care.

"Terrible!" Calvin threw his things down on the floor and went straight for his desk. "This is the worst assignment ever! I'm supposed to think up a story, write it, and illustrate it by tomorrow! Do I look like a novelist? This is impossible! I can't tell stories!" He groaned.

Hobbes chuckled at his friend's reluctance to be able to think up a story. They had time travel adventures in the backyard every weekend, his alter ego was Stupendous Man, and he couldn't think of anything to write about? Except for maybe one thing…

"What about your explanation of the noodle incident?"

Calvin's face turned purple. "That wasn't a story! That was the unvarnished truth!"

"Oh, don't be so modest. You deserved a Pulitzer."

Calvin's face twisted into a deeper grimace. "Why, I ought to roll you into a stripey rug! Your suggestions are good for absolutely nothing but insulting me!"

"Hey, I only suggested it. You were the one who caused the noodles to-"

Calvin shrieked as he pounced on Hobbes full force. "So it was my fault, was it? I'll have you know that I wasn't trying to cause any trouble on purpose!"

They continued fighting. "Well, it's not my fault you're a troublemaker!"

"Flea-breath!"

"Troublemaker!"

"Stripey bait!"

They continued calling each other names for a few minutes until they were on the ground, dirty and out of breath.

"Should we call a truce?" Calvin asked.

"Sure, truce," Hobbes agreed. "You know, you could write about fighting with your stuffed tiger. Truth is stranger than fiction, after all."

"Maybe you're right, but I think it's time for a break. Come on, old buddy, it's a nice day and we have this big backyard to go enjoy!"

"Do you have an idea for your story yet?" Hobbes asked an hour later.

"No, I'm waiting for inspiration," said Calvin, who was playing in his sandbox. "You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood."

"What mood is that?"

"Last-minute panic."

Hobbes rolled his eyes as Calvin continued rolling his truck over the sand. There was just no reasoning with Calvin over school, and Hobbes knew that sooner or later, this homework assignment would turn into something bigger.


	2. Calvin's Idea

"Calvin! Time for dinner!"

Calvin sighed as he put away his truck and went inside. He wasn't looking forward to his mom's meatloaf, but it sure beat this dumb assignment he had to do.

He washed up and sat at the table as he listened to his parents talk about their day-his dad's new client, his mom's struggle getting stuck in a line behind a lady with thirty coupons. He certainly couldn't make a story out of that. Grown up life was so…boring.

"How was your day, Calvin?" his dad asked.

"Fine," said Calvin. "Dad, if you had to write a story for school, what would it be about?"

Dad thought. "I guess if I had to pick anything, I would write about makes me happy. Then you have a good story, because you know a lot about the topic, and you enjoy writing it!"

"But last time I wrote about attacking Susie, I got in trouble."

"Not _quite_ what I meant," Dad said. "I meant something like dinosaurs, or tigers."

Calvin thought about this for a while, but how could he come up with a story about dinosaurs or tigers and make it sound realistic. Did Dad even know about the extensive research that would have to be involved? They finished their dinner in silence, and then Calvin was sent to his room to do his homework.

Sitting at his desk, he began to think And think. And think some more until smoke came out of his ears.

"If you ask me," he told Hobbes, "these assignments don't teach you how to write. They teach you how to hate to write. Deadlines, rules, how to do it, grades…how can you be creative when someone's breathing down your neck?" He slammed his fists on the desk.

Hobbes shrugged. His friend had a point, though he'd never admit it because he didn't want to be dragged into it. It always got him into trouble. "I guess you should try not to think about the end result too much and just have fun with the process of creating."

"Every time I do that, I end up in the school psychologist's office," Calvin said.

"Well, maybe not _that_ much fun."

"Great! The only way to get out of this assignment is to …say, I have an idea!" He leapt from his chair and headed to his closet.

"For your story?" Hobbes asked eagerly.

If there was an ideal treasure mine of inspiration anywhere, it was Calvin's closet. Comic books, fake doggy doo, old mushy apples that they once threw at Susie…ah, good times. But he wasn't looking for any of those things.

"No," Calvin said to Hobbes. "I thought of a way we won't have to write one."

He reached into the very back of the closet and pulled out a cardboard box. It had been used for many things, including a duplicator and a transmogrifier, but tonight it had a different use. Hobbes could see it coming a mile away.

"Oh, no," Hobbes said.

"Hop in the time machine, Hobbes!" Calvin said, climbing inside. "We're going a few hours into the future! I'll have finished my story by then, so we'll just pick it up and bring it back to the present! That way, I won't have to write it!"

Hobbes wanted to tell Calvin that if he hadn't written his story by now, it couldn't possibly be ready at 8:30 if he was spending that time in a cardboard box, traveling to the future. But did he tell Calvin? Of course not, because Calvin would never listen to logic.

"Something doesn't make sense here, and I think it's me sitting in this box," he muttered.

"Relax," Calvin replied, putting on a pair of goggles sitting in the bottom of the box. "We'll be back as soon as we go. Vortex goggles on? Here we go!"

 **Hey guys, forgot to put this note in chapter 1 so here it goes. I always wondered what it might be like to read a Calvin and Hobbes adventure as a story as opposed to comic book form. Comics sometimes miss descriptions and transitions between scenes, and it would be interesting to see how it would play out as a story. This is my version of how Calvin's story-writing time travel adventure went. Of course, since the idea is taken from the comics, not all plot ideas and dialogue are mine.**

 **Hope you enjoy! Chapter 3 to come very soon.**


	3. Back to the Future

Together they zoomed off, passing light particles and colorful vortexes of nothingness. "We'll jump ahead to my bedtime and pick up my completed homework from my own future! Then we'll return to the present and we can goof off the rest of the evening!"

The box made a soft crash landing into Calvin's future room. It looked the same except for one thing: there was an extra Calvin and an extra Hobbes standing there.

"Here we are," Calvin said to his double, as if the double had been expecting him. "You must be the 8:30 Calvin."

"Did you have a good trip?" 8:30 Calvin asked.

"No," Hobbes muttered.

Leaning over, 8:30 Hobbes whispered into his counterpart's ear, "Pst! Why do you always go on these things?" Hobbes didn't answer, because he didn't know. Surely there was some reason he went along, right?

"Greetings, 8:30 Calvin and Hobbes! I'm 6:30 Calvin and this is 6:30 Hobbes," Calvin said, shaking 8:30 Calvin's hand.

"Charmed!" the doubles replied.

Calvin cleared his throat. ""Well, since we're you from the past, I suppose you know why we're here. Did you do the homework?"

"Me? No?" the double promptly replied.

Hobbes sat back and watched. He _knew_ this would never work…if it wasn't done at 6:30, there was no reason for it to be finished now. But he said nothing. Calvin got into this mess and Calvin could get out.

"NO? Why not?"

"Because two hours ago, I went into the future to go get it!" said 8:30 Calvin.

"Yeah, and here I am! Where is it?"

"That's what I said two hours ago!"

"I knew this would never work," Hobbes muttered.

"Right as always, Hobbes," said 8:30 Hobbes.

The Calvins continued yelling. "Do you mean to say it's time for bed and you still haven't written your story for school?"

"I figured the story was already done!" said 8:30 Calvin.

"How could it be done if you didn't write it?"

"Obviously it had to be done before now, because it's 8:30 and I'm supposed to be in bed!"

Calvin thought for a moment, then it came to him. "Wait a minute. If the story had been written in your past, that would mean I should've written it!"'

"Well, why didn't you?"

"Brilliant, Einstein," Hobbes muttered from across the room.

"He'll never learn, will he?" said 8:30 Hobbes.

The two Calvins continued to yell at each other for a few minutes, but the original Calvin had had enough. "Okay, okay!" he said, clapping his hands together. "Hold it. Let's figure this out. I'm you at 6:30 and you're me at 8:30. Neither of us did the homework."

"Right," said 8:30 Calvin.

"That means…the homework should have been done between my time and your time."

"Right," agreed 8:30 Calvin again. "We needed to do it at 7:30."

"But the 7:30 Calvin clearly didn't do it, or you'd have it now at 8:30."

8:30 Calvin gasped, unwilling to take the blame for anything. "Yeah! This is his fault!"

"That lazy little punk! He'll get us both in trouble!"

"Let's go get him!" said 8:30 Calvin, a devilish look appearing on his face.

The two set off to the time traveling box. "Hobbeses, the 8:30 Calvin and I are going to go back to 7:30 and make that Calvin do the homework."

"We'll wait here," said Hobbes. "All that time travel makes us queasy."

"We'll be right back!" And the Calvins sped off into the past once again.

 **Hey guys, thanks for stopping by and I hope you're enjoying what you're reading so far. I'm starting to understand why some of these adventures are told in comic book form- it really gets hard to tell the Calvins and Hobbeses apart, doesn't it? I know that writing "8:30" etc. before each character gets annoying, but it's the only way to tell them apart without illustration and I hope it clears things up at least a little. Enjoy, and leave a review if you feel so inclined. Only 2 more chapters to go!**


	4. Back to the Past

The two Calvins raced through a colorful space-time continuum at light speed.

"At least you're a better time traveler than Hobbes," said Calvin, steering the box.

"I'll say," said 8:30 Calvin. "All he does is complain the whole time. It really slows down the speed of time travel."

"A-ha! Here we are, right at 7:30!" Calvin said. The two landed in Calvin's room, ready to attack. 7:30 Calvin looked up from his comic book in surprise, though he seemed to know exactly who they were. "Yikes! My past and future!"

"Put down that comic book and do our homework!" yelled 8:30 Calvin.

"Hey!" the 7:30 duplicate shouted. "Why should I do all the work? Either of you could do it too!"

"But I didn't at 6:30 and now it's 7:30," said Calvin.

"And at 8:30, it will be too late," the 8:30 Calvin chimed in. "You're the last chance." Calvin and 8:30 Calvin looked at their counterpart, as if ready for a challenge that they weren't going to back down from anytime soon. 7:30 Calvin began backing up slowly.

"Now are you gonna start writing, or are we gonna have to pound you?" threatened Calvin.

7:30 Calvin blew a raspberry at the original. "Go ahead and hit me! My future self will be the one who hurts!"

"HEY!" 8:30 Calvin yelled. He lunged at 7:20 Calvin, who laned on top of the original Calvin.

"Whoa! Geroff me! Ow!" he yelled, scrambling to get up…but he couldn't, because he was trapped under his two doubles. There was nothing to do but be crushed under their fighting.

Meanwhile, the Hobbeses were sitting in 8:30 Calvin's room waiting for the two to come back.

"This has to be the least efficient way to write a paper," Hobbes muttered.

"All this modern technology just makes people try to do everything at once," 8:30 Hobbes chimed in.

They thought for a moment. There wasn't a whole lot to do when their best friends were out and about in the universe somewhere…or maybe outside of it, so they had been quiet for the past few moments.

"You know, Hobbes," said the original, "if the 7:30 Calvin is at all like the 6:30 and 8:30 Calvins, I'll bet he isn't going to write that story."

"You're right, Hobbes," said the 8:30 tiger.

"Why don't we write a story while we're waiting for them?"

8:30 Hobbes' face lit up. "Yeah! Calvin could use it for his class then."

Hobbes ran for some paper. "I'll write it down and you can illustrate it!" He'd done some illustrations for Calvin's homework before, and they had turned out quite well, or so he thought. They'd make a great team.

They sat down at Calvin's desk, each with paper and pen in hand, and got to work. "Ok, now what should our story be about?" 8:30 Hobbes wondered.

Hobbes began to laugh to himself. "Calvin's not here…let's write about him!"

8:30 Hobbes laughed. "Drawing Calvin is easy!" he said, drawing Calvin's face on the paper. "You just make a big mouth and add some hair!"

The tigers laughed as they set to work. A few sentences and drawings of time travel boxes later, they knew they'd have a great tale.

Meanwhile, the Calvins were picking themselves up after their kerfuffle.

"Look, guys, you can't gang up on me," said 7:30 Calvin.

"Oh yeah?"

"Why not?"

"Because…because we're all the same Calvin! In one hour, the 6:30 Calvin will be me, and in another hour, we'll both be 8:30 Calvin! That means you guys will have to suffer whatever you do to me."

It seemed like they had discovered what Hobbes wanted to tell Calvin earlier; that a time travel quest for homework was impossible.

"Oh yeah…" muttered Calvin. "Whose dumb idea was this, anyway?"

As if on cue, each Calvin pointed to one another and said, "His!"

The silence that followed was met by laughter.

"Come on, guys," said Calvin. "We might as well go back to the present and get that story done. Or maybe we won't. I mean, who cares that much about homework in the first place?"

"I don't!" said 7:30 Calvin.

And they were off, zooming once again through colorful patterns in the space-time continuum, to Calvin's bedroom.

"Ok, just a comma there and a period there…and done!" Hobbes put down his pencil. "How's it going, Hobbes?"

"I'm just about done. I just have to-"

A whoosh was heard, and the tigers looked up to find that the two Calvins had arrived safe and sound.

"We're back, but we didn't get the homework," said Calvin. "Now it's 8:30 again and we're doomed."

Hobbes smiled. "Well, here you go! Hobbes and I wrote a story for you while you were gone!"

"You did?"

Calvin picked it up and was satisfied at the amount of text and drawings. From what he could see, it looked like a well-done homework assignment. "Ha ha! We're all done! We can go back to 6:30 now! Thanks, Hobbeses! You guys are lifesavers!"

"Any time," said 8:30 Hobbes (who was now the present Hobbes, as it was 8:30). "You know, if you were looking for a way to thank me for doing your homework, we could go on over to the kitchen and…"

"Well, I'll leave that to you," said 6:30 Calvin. "C'mon, Hobbes, we should get going."

"Calvin?"

6:30 Calvin flinched. "It's Mom calling me! Hurry, Hobbes, get in!" He turned to 8:30 Calvin. "We'll be you in a couple hours! So long!"

"Aren't you in bed yet?" Mom yelled from the hall.

"Don't come in!" Calvin panicked. "I'm…uh…changing into my pajamas! Guys, you'd better go!" he whispered to 6:30 Calvin.

"Don't worry, we're off! So long!" And off they went.

Calvin sighed. "Boy, I'm glad that's over! I'm almost happy it's time for bed!"

"But aren't you going to look at your story?" Hobbes asked. "I mean, I think it's pretty good…"

"Maybe later," Calvin replied. "Right now, I'm tired." He climbed into bed, and Mom came in.

"Did you write your story for class tomorrow?"

"Sort of," Calvin admitted.

Mom frowned. She had had enough of Calvin pulling various hijinks to get out of homework. "What do you mean, _sort of_?"

"Well, Hobbes helped and I had to do a lot of time traveling," Calvin stated as if his idea would make perfect sense to an adult.

Mom sighed. "Is your story written or not?"

"Oh, it's written. I just haven't read it."

"Calvin, you know that…" She stopped. She was about to threaten Calvin with no dessert if he came home with another bad grade, but if he said that it was written, maybe there was nothing to worry about. "I trust you this time, Calvin. Goodnight."

Calvin sat back and went to sleep, eager for his debut as an author the next day.


	5. Calvin's Story

"Goodness, Calvin," Mom said the next morning. "You're up and dressed already? I haven't even called you yet!"

"Of course not!" Calvin said, pouring himself of a bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs. "Today's the day I have to read my story in front of the class, and it's going to be great! A good author has to take time to look good, you know. He should take care in deciding what he should wear in front of his classmates. He should also give himself lots of energy so he's ready for the day ahead."

"You got that right," Hobbes snickered from the kitchen table, looking at just how many sugar bombs were in Calvin's bowl.

Calvin itched to read his story all day. He sat through addition and suffered through subtraction. Finally, recess arrived, and then lunch, where he sat next to Susie Derkins.

"Hi, Calvin!" she said brightly. "Did you write your story for language arts?"

"Of course I did! It's going to be the best in the whole class! It features a blend of science fiction, tigers, and…um…" What was his story about, anyway? Surely one of the two things he mentioned was involved, if Hobbes had any sense at all. He reached into his pocket to check before realizing he left it in his locker. "What did you write about, Susie?"

"I wrote about my bunny, Mr. Bun! We go out to a tea party, when we realize that the big bad Calvin is coming through. So we build ourselves a nice little house, paint it, hide away and live happily ever after!"

"Blech," Calvin muttered. "So feminine of you, Susie. But wait until you see mine. _My_ story involves epic proportions of the highest degree that will shock and astound! _My_ story will make the class grovel at my feet, begging for mercy not to squander their lives when I make money off the story and become rich!" At least, Calvin hoped so. Hobbes was pretty good at completing homework, and Calvin was all too eager to reap the benefits of the story.

"I think you had a little too much sugar this morning," muttered Susie.

"Well, you just wait. You'll all see!" And he let out an evil grin, just for the heck of it. Susie just rolled her eyes.

"All right, Calvin, go ahead," Miss Wormwood said. "What's your story about?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm sure it's good!"

Calvin cleared his throat dramatically before beginning. "Ahem, okay. My story is entitled…How Hobbes, the Handsome Tiger, Saves The Day No Thanks to Calvin, The Time Traveling Chowderhead… WHAT?"

How could his best friend do this to him? Insult him in the title of his own story? He would never, ever forgive Hobbes as long as he lived.

"Is there a problem?" Miss Wormwood growled.

"There _will_ be for a certain stripey furball when I get home."

As he read aloud, he was shocked to notice that the events on the paper were the ones that had taken place exactly the night before. From the original idea to the time traveling to the fights, Hobbes had jotted down every unflattering detail. Hobbes' drawings were good, if not plain insulting, but the class didn't get to see those- thank goodness. But the worst part of all was that the entire class laughed when Calvin read the scene about the Calvins fighting each other. It seemed like the story went on for pages and pages, and as a matter of fact, it did.

"And so, Hobbes the handsome tiger, along with his sidekick Calvin, vowed never to use their time traveling box ever again," Calvin finished.

The entire class applauded, including Miss Wormwood. "Thank you, Calvin. Well done. Okay, Susie, you're next."

"Bravo, Twinky!" yelled Moe from the back. "I liked the part where you beat yourself up!"

Calvin's face burned. What Hobbes did was embarrassing, but being laughed at by Moe because of it was unforgivable. He had a bone to pick with his tiger friend.

When Calvin stepped off the bus, he was in no mood to play or get pounced on. Instead, he stomped right up to his room.

"Ok, you!" he yelled at Hobbes, clutching his story.

" _Me?"_ Hobbes asked, sweetly.

"This story you wrote is about me trying to get out of writing the story! You made my time traveling sound like lunacy! And the illustration! You drew the three of me fighting! I was the laughing stock of the entire class!"

"What grade did it get?" asked Hobbes.

Calvin flipped to the last page. "Um…A+. She wrote, 'Very creative. The tiger narration was a clever touch. I'm glad you're finally applying yourself.'"

Hobbes took it and read over the comments. "A+? Maybe I should send this to the New Yorker."

Calvin grimaced. "Oh, no you won't. Without me, you wouldn't even have had that story to write in the first place!"

"Of course, I _could_ mention you. That is, if you agree to make me a tuna sandwich every day for the rest of our lives. But ooh, think of the publicity I'll get! Susie won't be able to stand it! Smooches, here I come!"

"Over my dead body!" yelled Calvin, pouncing on Hobbes himself.

"Maybe this will make you think before getting in that box next time!" yelled Hobbes.

"Well, maybe this will make you think before writing a story without me!" Calvin said as the two continued rolling over each other.

"Calvin! Have you started your homework yet?" Mom called from downstairs.

Calvin leapt to attention. "Homework? But it's only 3:30!"

"I know, but you need to get it done now. Your dad and I are going out tonight and I don't want you to give Rosalyn any trouble about it later. Come on, let's get going."

"Rosalyn? NO!" Calvin yelled. "Hobbes, we need to take action."

"You mean, do the homework on time?"

"No! We'll go into the future and get it; that way we'll have it done and avoid Rosalyn at the same time! Come on, let's go!" He was already pulling the box out of his closet.

"You have got to be kidding me," Hobbes muttered.

It seemed like Calvin would never learn. But at least, Hobbes thought, he had a good imagination for a kid his age.

 **Hey guys, thank you so much for reading! You'll notice I did make some changes and additions to the original story; I thought it might be more interesting if it was fleshed out a bit more. I hope I got their characterizations good enough, as this is only my second attempt at a C &H story. Will Calvin ever learn? Who knows. I have some more C&H fanfics planned, be on the lookout for them eventually. **

**PurpleRose24**


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